Bourbon The Way It Used To Be"When I settled in Kentucky in 1788, the thing I missed most about my old Virginia home was the bourbon - smooth, aged-in-wood, served straight from the cask. I had my father-in-law's yeast, so I decided to make some whiskey for myself. When it was ready for drinking, I shared some with friends and neighbors. They urged me to make more and soon I sold the farm and started distilling full time.

I made my bourbon the way my father-in-law taught me to. Sweet limestone water, freshly harvested grains, Indian white corn and his special yeast produced a whiskey that surpassed anything I had ever tasted.

I aged my bourbon in casks made from fresh oak straplings, so it can continue to mellow, absorbing the natural character of the oak, making for a full brimming taste.

Soon all the taverns in the County were selling my whiskey fresh out of a cask."

After consulting my OED and American Heritage and Webster's New International Second Edition dictionaries, I am forced to the conclusion that "straplings" are part of the Through-The-Looking-Glass Lexicon which includes such keepers as "vorpal", "uffish", and "jabberwocky". Use them freely and as you wish, but don't try to play them in Scrabble.

"This is the real article. It is double-rectified busthead from Madison County, aged in the keg. A little spoonful would do you a power of good."